JOBLESS RATE NOT REALLY BETTER FOR OLDER WORKERS: “Lopatin’s experience helps illustrate the sharp contrasts in national unemployment data between older and younger workers. The unemployment rate for workers over age 55 is much lower than for the workforce as a whole — it stood at 6.7 percent in September, compared with the 9.1 percent national rate. But at the same time, workers over age 55 who do lose their jobs tend to be jobless far longer — 54.8 weeks, compared with 38.6 weeks for younger workers as of last week. . . . What’s more, the lower 55+ jobless rate doesn’t really mean older workers are having an easier time finding new jobs, Rix says. Rather, she thinks it reflects a trend among employers to hang on longer to more experienced workers. The lower jobless rate also reflects a greater tendency of older workers to become discouraged about finding new jobs, and drop out of the labor force entirely. The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t count workers who have stopped looking for jobs in its unemployment calculations, and that brings down the overall 55+ jobless rate.”